Phantom of Vengeance
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Danny, now an agent for the GIW, has received the best news he could have ever gotten from Sam, and now that his latest mission is over, heads home. What he finds in their house, however, transforms him into something that he fought to never become.


**Disclaimer: **_Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Dracula" is the property of Iced Earth and Century Media.

* * *

**Do you believe in love?**

**Do you believe in destiny?**

I don't know how it is that I happened to be so lucky. After such a long string of misery and exile within the halls of the imprisoning confines of high school and the accident that forever altered who and what I was, I don't know how it came to be that I found peace and love.

Especially when I knew that I didn't deserve it. I'm not the hero that they all see in me. There's a darkness inside that I have to fight every day that they can never know about.

Regardless of how I feel about the hero treatment I have received, I found my luck turning for the better, ironically enough, as the world was coming to an end. My best female friend of countless years was, I hoped at the time, seeking to become something more for me. The government, finally seeing that there was something more to me than just mindless arrogance and a need to destroy, sought to enlist me as an agent of their forces. They even went so far as to promise me immunity to the laws that had kept me in their gun's scopes for nearly two years, with the conditions that I agreed to their terms.

**True love may come**

**Only once**

**In a thousand lifetimes**

The asteroid came, and with the worldwide intangibility, went away just as quickly as it had appeared. My sister couldn't have been more proud of me. My best guy friend couldn't have been more proud of himself. My other best friend did want to be something more, and despite my reservations before, both for loving a friend and for loving a full human when I was half-dead, I was more than willing to try and see where the path would take us.

Turns out, it took us pretty far, indeed. Three years after the incident, not only had I graduated from high school, been signed on as an ectoplasmic agent of the Guys in White force, and secured a steady income for myself for years to come…I married Sam. The ceremony was small, mostly just family and friends, and it took most of the Guys in White working security to keep the press behind the barricades they'd set up. Regardless of all the forces working against us in the early years, she and I made something near impossible work out so well.

**I, too, have loved**

**They took her from me**

**I prayed for her soul**

**I prayed for her peace**

The only problem that I really have with my life, especially in the seven years we've been married, is that I spend a lot of time, and I mean a _lot _of time, away from home on various missions and such. The advantage is that I don't spend all of my time fighting this ghost or that ghost. A good twenty percent of my time is me time, and from the first mission I was sent on, Sam has started this cute little side hobby thing. Every time I visit a new country, I have to bring back a mini flag-on-a-stick, which she'll then stab into this enormous Styrofoam globe she got right after my first mission in Hungary. I'm up to about ninety flags now, and I have taken a few pictures and brought home some souvenirs. All of which, by the way, were legally obtained. Just because I have ghost powers doesn't mean I should or would take advantage of them.

**When I close my eyes**

**I see her face**

**It comforts me**

However, it turned out recently that there isn't just one reason for me to be happy about coming home this time. I may have another flag, specifically Russia's, and a pile of knick-knacks, but Sam's present beats out every single thing I have ever gotten.

You see, she called me last night, knowing that I was coming home the next day.

She's pregnant with our first child.

**When I close my eyes**

**Memories cut like a knife**

"Sam!" I call as I walk into the house, surprised that she's not out in the living room waiting for me like she usually does. She's probably just relaxing somewhere, trying to take it easy for the baby. Stress is supposed to be a bad thing unless it's in moderation or something like that.

"Honey!" I call again, my hand wandering to the banister as I start climbing the stairs, a bit worried that she's not answering me. I hope it's just that she's out of the house, or that she's asleep. It's not like Sam to mess with me like this. I'm paranoid enough because of my enemies in the Ghost Zone.

Hitting the final step that leads up to the second floor, I get a full facial assault of one of the most acrid smells in the world – ectoplasmic weapons fire. Normally, I can't smell ectoplasm, since it's energy rather than a physical substance, but artificial ectoplasm, like that from ecto-guns, has a slightly acidic pungency due to the base compounds used in its manufacturing. Add in the fact that my ghost powers amplify my senses beyond normal human capacity, and I know when a ghost hunter's gun has been fired within a thousand foot radius. From the fact that it took so long to register, the gun had to have been fired at least eight hours before, which had given the smell time to disperse.

My heart began pounding at the thought of why Sam would have had to pull out one of the guns my parents had supplied to us when we had moved in here.

And then my heart stopped cold. Since each ghost hunter develops their own formula for the ecto-ammo they use, the smell that comes from their weaponry is always somewhat different. And this didn't smell like my parent's ammo. This was GIW standard issue ammunition…and gunpowder. Someone had fired a ecto-laced physical bullet, and the only time I had ever heard of that ammo being used at all was two years ago when a ghost overshadowed a guy on Death Row and went on a mass killing spree. A single ecto-laced physical bullet, or Ecfy, as we dubbed them, had taken care of both the ghost and the guy he was controlling, courtesy of one of our best snipers.

Opening the door to our bedroom, my world froze. Sam was lying there, eyes glazed over, her mouth gaping wide in fear, her dead face a mask of unabashed terror. What caught my eye was where the blood that was spread across our carpet had come from. She'd been shot in the abdomen, and her petite form had been torn apart.

**The blood is the life**

**And Christ I defy**

**My sworn enemy**

**Birth of a new creed**

A scream escaped Danny's lips, and even though he was in his human form, the walls and windows shook. Falling to his knees, Danny crawled to the prone form that had once been his wife, laying a rapidly-cooling hand over the hole that had nearly separated her body into two pieces, and he could feel the faint glimmer of ectoplasm – natural ectoplasm – fading away. Their child had, to some extent, inherited his ghost genetics…and for that…

_Was that why Sam was killed? Because we were going to have a child with ghost powers?_

**Is this my reward**

**For serving God's own war?**

**The blood I've spilled**

**For faith fulfilled**

From his tower far within the Ghost Zone, Clockwork watched as Danny became something far worse than the specter he'd spent so long fearing. Hanging his head, Clockwork knew that he'd be getting a visit later from one of the Observants. It had been his responsibility to keep Danny on the right paths, but he'd seen what would become of the world if he stopped this.

Besides, the humans had gone too far. In trying to prevent the birth of another half-ghost that, like his father, would have worked for them, they had created an evil so powerful that no force on Earth could stop it.

Nor would any force within the Ghost Zone be able to stand against the monster that had once been Danny Fenton, Clockwork included.

**To damn her**

**A disgrace**

**You spit back in my face**

Obsidian orbs stared at the cold, carmine-stained corpse of his deceased wife, the marks of his transformation slowly appearing all over his body. A sickening snap and a stab of pain brought forth a wicked pair of fangs on both his upper and lower jaws as his once wintery blue-white aura shifted to a deep red so dark it was nearly black.

**I've served you loyally**

**And you spew blasphemy**

Tearing though the bedroom window, sharp glass cutting into flesh and clothing, Danny was little more than a black blur flying through the afternoon sky. Slicing through the air, he barely felt the raw pain associated with high flight speeds driving through his body.

From the ground so far below, many heads turned upwards, wondering what had just caused the sonic boom that had resonated from above, their eyes unable to find the minute speck careening through the air.

Rolling into a vicious dive, Danny heard the howl of ghost attack alarms at the GIW base, smiling wickedly as he raised his hand, firing an ash grey bolt of energy at the shield generator, watching in satisfaction as the small block of metal and circuitry blew into pieces. Landing on the roof, he took a deep breath before turning his head downwards and letting loose with a piercing wail, feeling the comforting sensation of the building beneath his feet shaking on its foundation. Slowly running out of breath, the wail tapered off to silence, broken moments later by the sound of a door being slammed open. Turning, he faced his commander, flashing a devious, fanged smile at the man, eyes glistening in the daylight. He could smell the fear and concern on each of the five agents that had appeared from the stairwell, and he walked slowly towards his commander.

"Danny, we weren't expecting you back so…"

"Cut the crap, Q," Danny snapped, and in the back of his mind, the sound of his voice set off triggers of alarm before they were quelled under the still-raging storms of anger. A thought flitted through his mind, and he smiled an even broader smile. "And don't call me Danny. Danny is dead, just like his wife and child…his _unborn child_."

**I avenge with darkness**

**The blood is the life**

**The Order of the Dragon**

**I feed on human life**

The agent didn't even have a chance to respond to Dan's accusation as a blur of halfa breezed by, and he felt a swift sting in his chest as Dan stopped, standing behind him. Gasps came from the other four agents, and Q turned to find his heart, still beating, sitting in Dan's palm. With a snarl, a burst of hoary energy erupted from the half-ghost's hand, incinerating the pulsating muscle, and the agent fell over where he stood, eyes glassing over slowly.

Hearing the sound of metal shifting against metal, Dan turned his eyes to find two of the agents raising their guns, preparing to fire. Moving through the short distance between them, a swift uppercut caught one agent under the chin, knocking him to the ground as Dan closed the gap between the second gunner, his razor-sharp canines digging deep into the woman's neck, a growl of heinous pleasure purring up from his throat as her blood flooded his mouth, the metallic fluid staining her pristine white uniform.

**There are more worse things**

**Awaiting man than death**

As the remaining two agents moved to run for the security of the building, Dan caught one by the collar of his uniform coat, unleashing a furious wail mere inches from the man's face, watching in satisfaction as the body slowly splattered into a wide puddle of gore at his feet, his boots sticking in the crimson fluid as he walked for the roof access door, fully aware that the anti-ghost shields blocking the entrances were probably active.

Opening the door that the sole surviving agent had fled, the familiar glow of electric green barrier met his eyes, and Dan turned from the door, fingers dancing over the security keypad. A sinister laugh slipped through his pursed lips, and he typed in an override command, pressing the keys in a flourish, hearing the well-known beeps as the command was accepted. Turning his hand human, he placed it against the biometric scanner, waiting as the system recognized his handprint. Slowly, the green light faded, and he walked into the facility, his aura trailing behind him like a miasmic fog.

**Come taste what I have seen**

**I'm spreading my disease**

Phazing through the facility, Dan came across the particular room he'd been looking for, and, leaning over the console, typed in a quick command, frowning as the system beeped at him, asking for level one security clearance. Growling under his breath, he flew back up to the roof, removing the small data chip from Agent Q's rapidly cooling corpse.

Returning to the command room, Dan laughed softly to himself as he swiped the small chip over the scanner. A beep sounded seconds later, and the computer monitor showed him exactly what he wanted to see.

**I will feed upon**

**His precious child**

**The human race will bleed**

**They will serve my need**

"I don't know what happened to him, but he's killed three agents already!"

Dan listened intently to the agent on the other side of the door, biding his time. He wanted to wear out his opponents, and what better way to weaken them than to let their fear tear them down.

"He shouldn't be able to get far, agent. All the doors are sealed against ghosts, and you know that he can't get through them even if he's human."

"He's got access codes, sir!" the agent answered. "He'll get us wherever we go!"

**I avenge with darkness**

**The blood is the life**

**The Order of the Dragon**

**I feed on human life**

Dan stepped back, coiling his leg for the strike, feeling the energy work its way through his body, every sense honed to a razor's edge. Releasing the spring of his leg, he kicked the steel door clear out of the wall, watching with a sense of pride as the sharp edges caught another agent in the abdomen as the piece of shrapnel flew through the room.

A few of the agents cringed back, but the head of the GIW stood there, defiantly facing Dan, assured that he couldn't get past the security defenses installed throughout the building.

The look on that agent's face was priceless as Dan walked through the anti-ghost defenses without even a warning beep that a ghost had infiltrated the perimeter. He looked at the agent that had fled from the roof, a sick sense of humor awakening within him as the young man bolted for the doorway Dan had just come in through…

**I am the Dragon of Blood**

**The relentless Prince of Pain**

And hit the barrier with a sickening thud, his nose bleeding from the impact with the shielding. The agent turned around, his eyes barely catching the fact that the barrier was now luminescent red. "What did you…?" he managed before Dan's hands grabbed onto the sides of his head, the vehement halfa giving a single twist to the man's neck before letting the body drop to the floor.

Looking around, Dan counted the agents in the room. He'd killed five so far, and there were another twenty-one in the room with him, still alive…for now. That still left thirteen agents unaccounted for. Granted, none of them would be leaving this room alive, and there was no way out since the barriers had been recalibrated moments earlier to hold back humans instead of ghosts.

Shaking his head, he faced the head of the organization.

"Why?" he answered.

When no reply was given, a clone appeared near another agent, his ectoplasm decimating the agent's torso. A few of the agents nearby glanced at the hybrid's clone, then at the hybrid himself, before turning their eyes towards their leader.

"Why?" Dan asked again.

The leader again remained silent.

**Renouncing God on His throne**

**My blood is forever stained**

Another agent suddenly cried out in pain as Dan's clone flooded his body with ectoplasm, his fingers digging into the young man's flesh, and a fourth body fell lifeless to the floor.

"I will kill each and every one of them if you don't answer me, and I can get pretty inventive with the ways they die," Dan threatened. "Now answer me, Messor," he commanded. "Why?"

A shot rang out in the room, and Dan looked down at his side, searching for where he'd been hit. His coal black eyes shot open as he saw the Ecfy bullet, still warm, on the floor beside him, his own body untouched. Without another word, the agent who'd fired the shot found herself skewered on the end of a glowing ectoplasmic sword, Dan's clone driving the blade further into her chest.

Looking over his shoulder, the remaining sixteen agents suddenly found themselves held captive by the strong arms of Dan's clones. Turning back to the head agent, Dan asked again, "Why, Messor?"

With yet more silence, four of the agents were brought close to them, each one with wide eyes and fear etched into their faces. One by one, his clones killed their captive and vanished. The first agent had his windpipe pulled out, and he collapsed to the floor, his lungs no longer drawing in breath. The second felt cold fingers on his back before three vertebrae were yanked out of his neck, severing the life-cord within the bone. The third agent was cleft in two up the middle by another ecto-blade, his blood splattering over the agent next to him, the lead agent, and Dan. The fourth agent doubled over as the smell of death crawled into her nose, and Dan took no time in lashing out with a beam of ectoplasm that cut her in two, her body massacred much like Sam's had been.

**For true love**

**I shall avenge**

**I defy**

**The creed that damned her**

Agent Messor's eyes were calm and unemotional, but Dan could smell the pungent aroma of guilt and horror taking over him. He'd seen the veneer slip for just a moment as the latest victim's body crashed to the metal flooring, wondering how much blood would be have to be spilled just to find out why Sam had been taken from him.

"Messor, I'm warning you. Answer me now, or I will paint you with their blood. Why did you kill Sam?"

Another agent was brought before them, but before the clone could make the fatal move, Messor spoke up. "Wait," he said, his voice low and breaking. "Daniel, you have to understand, we couldn't risk having another half-ghost like you…"

The agent next to them screamed as the clone vaporized both his kidneys.

"You killed her for something so stupid?!" Dan roared. "If I worked for you, what's to keep my children from doing the same?!" Without any thought towards what he was doing, the remaining clones all bit into their victim's necks, ripping out large chunks of flesh and leaving the agents to die in pools of their own blood.

**I am the Dragon of Blood**

**The relentless Prince of Pain**

"You don't understand, Daniel, there was no guarantee that they would be as…docile as you had been towards us. Their powers might have been different."

Dan reached forward, wrapping his fingers around the agent's throat. Pulling the man towards him, Dan's eyes narrowed to venomous slits of pure hatred. "I would have kept them on the right path," he growled. "I knew what it meant to fight the darkness within, and you destroyed the one thing…no, the two things that have kept me in line all these years. You destroyed her for_ nothing more _than your own ignorance." Dan's voice had gone extremely low, and the single intake of breath was enough to warn the agent what was coming next.

He shut his eyes, waiting for the wail that would kill him, but it never came. Barely managing the courage to crack open one eye, he saw Dan standing there, holding in his breath, then expelling it swiftly. The hybrid set the man back down on the floor, and Messor thought for just one moment that Dan was going to leave him to suffer the sight of all his agents dead before him.

**Renouncing God on His throne**

**My blood is forever stained**

Dan took three steps towards the door before spinning on his heel and embedding his fist within Messor's body. Searching around, Dan smiled wickedly as he grasped the core of the man's life-force, and flooding it gently with his own ectoplasm, he spoke once more to his former colleague. "Never will you leave here, and never will you pass on. You've taken two lives that were not yours to take, and so you will live forever with the sight of these agents whose blood covers your hands. In taking my family from me, so I leave you with the knowledge that you condemned _all of_ _them_ to death."

**I am the Dragon of Blood**

**A relentless Prince of Pain**

Stepping back, he watched as the agent's skin turning a sick shade of green-gray before collapsing onto the floor, a faint green essence coalescing above his body.

Walking out of the room, Dan knew it would be some time before the remains of the man's soul reformed into something similar to his human form, but when it finally did happen, the ghost of his former supervisor would find itself unable to go any further than the facility, eternally locked within because of the taint Dan had left upon his soul.

**Renouncing God on His throne**

**My blood is forever stained**

Entering another room, Dan opened a file, searching for the remaining agents that were still alive and abroad. Printing out their assignment data as each was located, he felt a small grin tug at the corners of his mouth. True, they weren't guaranteed to stay in any one place for long, but one by one, Dan would find each of them, and for what Sam had suffered, he would reciprocate it a hundredfold onto the remaining few agents of the GIW.

**For true love**

**I shall avenge**

**I defy**

**The creed that damned her**

And deep inside him, he realized that the true burning fire within him was no longer for vengeance alone, but for the feeling of their life ebbing away in his hands.


End file.
